Free Republic

After they struggled with COVID-19 symptoms for two weeks, Joel Mahoney drove his parents to Pen Bay Medical Center in Rockport, where his mother, Nancy Mahoney, was admitted on Dec. 19, 2021 for complaints of labored breathing, fatigue and a cough. She was treated for COVID pneumonia that required supplemental oxygen. She told the hospitalist treating her that a doctor, Ellsworth internist Meryl Nass, had diagnosed her with COVID “over the phone” earlier that month and prescribed a five-day supply of the antiparasitic drug ivermectin. The proponents of using the drug to treat COVID have been roundly criticized, and the...

Maine lobster businesses and industry trade associations today filed a federal lawsuit against the Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation (the “Aquarium”) for making false and defamatory statements about Maine lobster fishing practices and for misleading consumers and commercial lobster buyers about the integrity of the Maine lobster harvest. The lawsuit challenges the Aquarium’s claims that “scientific data” show that Maine lobster fishing practices are responsible for harming North Atlantic right whales. The lawsuit asserts that the Aquarium’s claims are in fact not supported by science, and that the Aquarium’s false statements have caused substantial economic harm to plaintiffs, as well as...

ISLE AU HAUT — The news reports were glowing: A planned microgrid on Isle au Haut could “hold the answer to the future of electricity,” wrote ensia, an environmental media outlet based in Minnesota. It could one day “be a model for the entire nation,” according to another national broadcast. The project, depicted in 2020 as being on the verge of installation, would include solar panels to generate energy and supercapacitors and heat pumps to store it. That hardware would be accompanied by state-of-the art software that would decide when it was most cost-effective and efficient to store and release...

<p>U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) joined a bipartisan group of Senators in cosponsoring legislation introduced by Senators Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Rob Portman (R-OH) to establish a new memorial to honor fallen journalists. The privately funded memorial would be constructed on federal lands within Washington, D.C., to honor journalists, photographers, and broadcasters who have been killed in the line of duty.</p>

I know that there are a fair number of hams (amateur radio operators) that are Freepers. We are "represented" by the American Radio Relay League. The ARRL was founded in 1914 and is supposed to be representing the interests of the American ham radio community. Unfortunately, as is the case with many organizations, it has lost its way and has become a secretive club with its own agenda. It needs to be reformed. A set of recent unfortunate incidents have proven to the be the breaking point for many active hams. A petition to reform the ARRL has been launched....

KITTERY, Maine – Officials at Mitchell Primary School are apologizing after a book about a transgender child was read to most of the school’s K-3 students. “We have a practice of if a topic is considered sensitive, parents should be informed,” superintendent Allyn Hutton told SeaCoastOnline.com. “In this situation, that didn’t happen. The whole culture at Mitchell School is about teaching tolerance and respect. The people presenting the lesson thought (the book) was one more piece of teaching that lesson. “In retrospect, we understand that toleration is tolerating people of all opinions,” Hutton said. Criticism flooded the district after Fox...

A federal law passed in February 2012 to help middle class families by creating jobs and cutting payroll taxes included a section mandating the creation of a nationwide interoperable broadband communications system for law enforcement and first responders. The system, which is being created under the direction of the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet), seeks to create a nationwide broadband network capable of being used for a variety of law enforcement purposes including remote surveillance, mobile biometric applications like field fingerprint scanning and facial recognition, as well as automated license plate reading. The system is currently in a pilot phase...

MANCHESTER — The father of a Hallsville School fourth-grader wants the principal reprimanded, or fired, for allowing an anti-bullying exercise that asked students to curse in class. Keith Katsikis said he and his wife have pulled their three Hallsville students out of the school after they found out about the exercise he believes is inappropriate for children. Katsikas has started a petition calling for the firing of Hallsville principal Christi Michaud. He also sent copies of his letter to the school superintendent, school board members, the mayor, aldermen and the woman who presented the exercise. “I wanted to make sure...

Today the FCC voted three to two to reclassify broadband Internet access as a common carrier service under Title II of the Communications Act, and forbear from the parts of the Act that aren’t necessary for net neutrality rules. This reclassification gives the FCC the authority to enact (and enforce) narrow, clear rules which will help keep the Internet the open platform it is today. As expected, the FCC’s new rules forbid ISPs from charging Internet users for special treatment on their networks. It will also reach interconnection between ISPs and transit providers or edge services, allowing the FCC to...

A police sweep at Oceanside High School East in Rockland last week has stirred up a passionate debate over how to balance the individual rights of students with "zero tolerance" drug policies. Principal Renee Thompson said that although there have not been any specific drug problems at the school, she organized the raid by the Rockland Police along with the Knox and Lincoln County Sheriff's Departments in an effort to "send the message that we have zero tolerance for drugs, tobacco and paraphernalia brought on school grounds." According to Rockland Police Detective Sergeant Chris Young, it's the first time in...

Thanks to Edward Snowden, we know the apparatus of repression has been covertly attached to the democratic state. However, our struggle to retain privacy is far from hopeless.

I got this email from a relative. Scary how uneducated some "educated" people are. These are middle class 30s people with good jobs, a mix of high school and college graduates. I was at my friend’s house last night and there were a bunch of people over. It was really nice out so we stayed outside most of the time. When the stars started to appear I used an app on my phone that lets you look up in the sky and it identifies what stars/planets/constellations you’re aiming the phone at. One thing lead to another and a person made...

London, 1772. I have been asked by my superiors to give a brief demonstration of the surprising effectiveness of even the simplest techniques of the new-fangled Social Networke Analysis in the pursuit of those who would seek to undermine the liberty enjoyed by His Majesty’s subjects. This is in connection with the discussion of the role of “metadata” in certain recent events and the assurances of various respectable parties that the government was merely “sifting through this so-called metadata” and that the “information acquired does not include the content of any communications”. I will show how we can use this...

[....] First and foremost, the surveillance state is robust. It is robust politically, legally, and technically. I can name three different NSA programs to collect Gmail user data. These programs are based on three different technical eavesdropping capabilities. They rely on three different legal authorities. They involve collaborations with three different companies. And this is just Gmail. The same is true for cell phone call records, Internet chats, cell-phone location data. [....] Our choice isn't between a digital world where the NSA can eavesdrop and one where the NSA is prevented from eavesdropping; it's between a digital world that is...

In recent months, Lavabit, based in Texas, and Silent Circle, based in Washington, D.C., both shuttered their encrypted email services. The companies said they couldn’t keep them running knowing they were vulnerable to surveillance if faced with a dedicated enough attacker… which for Lavabit came in the form of the federal government when it wanted access to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden’s Lavabit account. Now the companies are teaming up with plans to offer an open-source tool that could make peer-to-peer, end-to-end encryption an easy add-on for any email service.

HOPKINTON — A safe full of fireworks and an acetylene torch caused an explosion that took the lives of two men who police said were attempting an early morning burglary at a landscaping company. Lucas Burke, 21, of Allenstown and Ethan Keeler, 20, of Epsom died in a blast at New Yard Landscaping at 67 Farrington Corner Road. According to the state fire marshal’s office, “the two males were attempting to gain entry into a closed metal container which contained consumer fireworks using an oxy-acetylene cutting torch when the blast occurred. The investigation has revealed that the two victims did...

Gregory Hodge, of Jefferson, is urging people on the political left and right to look critically at their party affiliation. Hodge was the state committeeman for the Lincoln County Republicans until he and 11 other Republicans unenrolled from the Maine Republican Party and resigned related positions this week, Hodge joined five other state committee members, Republican National Committee member Mark Willis, and five other registered Maine Republicans in writing a letter outlining their disaffiliation and the reasons behind it to Maine GOP Secretary Chuck Malaheris. The Aug. 18 letter criticizes a number of people, actions, and groups, including rule changes...

Obama's debates: Where was the beef? EDITORIAL The presidential debates are over and they might well have changed America’s opinion of Barack Obama. What America saw in its President was not a statesman who confidently deflected his challenger’s criticisms with the shield of truth, but a politician who dodged, prevaricated, misled and slung mud — all behaviors this President once said he stood firmly against. In the first debate, Obama was nearly absent save for the plodding, desperate misrepresentations on which he relied. In the second debate, Obama tried sophomorically to enlist Big Bird to do his fighting for him....

Christian Civic League (ME) and Massachusetts Family Institute Assist Tea Party in Support of Free Speech When Carroll Conley heard the Mid-Coast Tea Party was desirous of serving Chick-fil-A at their next meeting, he called Tea Party organizer Gordon Colby to offer to deliver the poultry snacks. "This seemed like a great opportunity to celebrate freedom of speech and have a little fun. Certainly the Tea Party and the Christian Civic League would have the common interest of supporting Chick-fil-A in light of recent events." "Since Maine does not have any Chick-fil-A's, I thought many of our members would like...

Like many other ham operators, I have been involved in the RACES (Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service) aspect of the hobby for some time. RACES teams generally work with county emergency management agencies and support emergency communications. All of this, of course, rolls up to our corrupt FEMA/DHS bureaucracy and a lot of the ham physical resources are supported by FEMA grant money, strings attached. While the head is rotten, many of the local agencies are pretty good to work with while some aren't. I am seeing a number of hams expressing discontent with, or curtailing their level of activity...